On 28/08/2012 wallwombat wrote:>On 28/08/2012 Macciza wrote:>>It's a pity they don't mentioned that David Lama got the first free ascent>>. . .>>And suspicious that there are such gaps in his memory of the climb .>.>> .>>David Lama's free ascent used Meastri's bolt ladder.>>This vid is about the three routes on the mountain that don't use Meaststri's>bolts.>>I think you missed that bit.

"Wharton commented, "All told, a route with over 400 holes could be brought down to less then 20 very reasonably, and it would without doubt change the nature of the peak and its difficulty considerably."

(Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk) ''chopped around 100 of Maestri's bolts on their descent"

On 28/08/2012 wallwombat wrote:>"Wharton commented, "All told, a route with over 400 holes could be brought>down to less then 20 very reasonably, and it would without doubt change>the nature of the peak and its difficulty considerably." >>(Hayden Kennedy and Jason Kruk) ''chopped around 100 of Maestri's bolts>on their descent">>That still leaves around 300 bolts. >>Runouts or no runouts, that's probably not exactly "Fair Means"
Apparently they clipped only 5 bolts while leading, ironically none of them on Maestri's bolt-ladders. They then chopped all the headwall bolts and a lower pitch. Apparently they left all of the bolts on Maestri's big diversion out right from the ridge below the ice-towers, presumably because they weren't coming down that way.

On 28/08/2012 Macciza wrote:>It's a pity they don't mentioned that David Lama got the first free ascent>. . .>And suspicious that there are such gaps in his memory of the climb . .>
David Lama's account of the bivvies en route are eerily similar to Miguel75's recent horror night at Mt Alex. Perhaps he didn't like to mention that he popped out for a while for bacon and eggs..

Only "minimum protection because there were an extra 100 bolts on the head wall, when he made his previous redpoint attempt.

Personally, I find Kennedy and Kruk's ascent much more impressive. Pure alpine style ascent without the camera crew and associated friggers in the rigging. No huge sponsorship. They didn't use Maestri's bolt ladder and then were brave enough to make a huge ethical decision by chopping the bolts on the head wall and redeeming a beautiful mountain.